Writing about NBA players is kind of weird. You can write thousands of words about a guy and never have any clue if they’ve read a single one. Most players will tell you they never read the papers. But someone around them always does. And that circle gets pretty wide in these modern, digital times. There is one NBA coach I deal with quite regularly who swears on his grave he never reads a word written about him. But his whip-smart off-spring in some distant southern state? Yeah, they might keep up on the news. Wives and girlfriends read about their loved ones. Agents definitely do.
One of my formative NBA experiences was back in 1996 or 1997 when Damon Stoudamire ripped into me for something that appeared in the paper. The beauty of it was that I hadn’t written it. At the time the Globe was running some kind of weekly graphic feature where we anointed someone as being on the hot seat with a snarky reason why. Real high-minded newspapering. Our widely respected sports editor at the time decided that Stoudamire was on the “hot seat”, for reasons I can’t remember and don’t matter.
One Sunday afternoon after a game at the cozy SkyDome, Mighty Mouse calls me over to his stall and to tell me that his ‘people’ told him my paper had written this and that about him, which I confirmed. To his credit he called me over himself. Usually they tell one of the PR staff to “get that skinny dude for me” or “get that tall dude with glasses”. Not a lot of first names are used.
Anyway, he then proceeded to give me a colourful commentary as to why that was plain wrong and anyone who wrote such a thing was a fool and an idiot and barely worthy to be on this earth. Those weren’t his exact words.
I pointed out to him that I didn’t write it. That I had nothing to do with it, in fact.
Damon listened and nodded and gave me some advice:
“Your boss do you like that, you gotta quit that job.”
Noted.
Anyway this is just a pre-amble to the events of Wednesday night.
Jose Calderon caught my eye and waved me over in a very polite Jose way. And in a very polite Jose way he asked me if I had written that he said that Garbajosa had been practicing with the Spanish National team for five weeks before the European Championships began September 3rd.
I confirmed that I had.
I think this is the relevant passage:
“Yesterday, Raptors guard Jose Calderon let on that Garbajosa had been participating in Spanish national team practices for five weeks before the European championship started on Sept. 3. Given that the Raptors had cleared Garbajosa only for rehabilitative training [non-contact basketball], it's an issue that could get sticky.”
Now this was significant, because Garbajosa wasn’t cleared to do anything more than rehabilitative work by the Raptors at that stage of his recovery. And given the twists and turns regarding Garbo’s leg it was the kind of detail that was and likely will be material as the Raptors and his insurance company haggle over who owes who money if Garbo is lost for the year.
But now Jose who, as far as I know, is not a Globe and Mail subscriber, was saying he was catching heat in Spain for what I said he said in our paper.
There was even some concern that Jose was somehow hurting his friend’s cause by giving information to the Raptors.
No reporter likes to be accused of misquoting someone, or misrepresenting what someone has said. It’s pretty serious stuff. But I must say, the experience (a rare one for me) has never gone down so nicely. No drama, no hard feelings. Just Jose making his case.
He went on to add that he had said Garbo was practicing with Spain last summer, but clarified that though he was with the team, he was doing only the light individual rehabilitative work he was supposed to be doing, much of it under the supervision of Raptors training staff who were on hand in Spain. Maybe it was a language thing.
Anyway, for the record here is the transcript of the scrum on Monday when reporters were asking Jose about Garbo’s practice habits:
Q: Was Garbo practising with the national team before Eurobasket?
A: “He practiced five weeks with us before Eurobasket and he was all right. He was [in Toronto to see team doctors], everything was all right and he played. That’s the news I have."
Q: He was running up and down, scrimmaging?
“[Yes] He looked great, better than some of us … He got no days off. He was one of us. Everybody [forgot] about his ankle. Nobody was asking him, ‘How do you feel?’ He just played. He was one more of us, just another teammate.”
So there we have it. That’s what I heard, which is why I wrote it the way I did.
I’m open to the possibility that Jose misinterpreted the question and I misinterpreted his answer. These things happen. And I can state with full confidence, for From Deep’s Spanish readers, that in no way, shape or form was Calderon trying to do a disservice to his friend and teammate by providing information that could be in some way harmful to his interests, or whispering to management or anything else. He was asked questions and answered them, nothing more complicated than that.
But it’s rare for a player to jump into one of the most competitive basketball tournaments in the world without a full practice under his belt.
And I’m not ready to quit that job yet.
